Elena Phipps, has her PhD from Columbia University in Precolumbian Art History and Archaeology, 1989. She worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for 34 years as a textile conservator as well as a curator for two major textile exhibitions: The Colonial Andes: Tapestries and Silverwork 1430-1830, in 2004 (whose catalogue was awarded the CAA Alfred Barr Jr. Award and the Mitchell Prize) and The Interwoven Globe: worldwide textile trade (2013). She has focused her professional work on the study of the history of textile materials and techniques, in cultural contexts. Her publications include Cochineal Red: the art history of a color (MMA, 2010) and Looking at Textiles: a technical terminology (Getty Publications, 2013) and many articles on materiality and textiles, including her most recent “Woven Brilliance: Approaching Color in Andean Textile Traditions” (Textile Museum Journal, 2020). She was President (2011-2014) of the Textile Society of America, and teaches textile history, techniques and cultures in the Department of World Arts and Culture/Dance, University of California at Los Angeles, (UCLA) since 2011.